The Four Tendencies

Based on Gretchen Rubin’s book The Four Tendencies, we can determine how you work best by figuring out whether you’re an Upholder, Questioner, Rebel, or Obliger.

As with all personality typologies, there’s no good or bad, it’s just helpful to know your innate tendency, so we can get the best results for you! Don’t think too hard or too long about it.

 
Venn diagram of Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies. Upholders meet outer and inner expectations. Obligers meet outer but resist inner expectations. Rebels resist all expectations. Questioners resist outer and meet inner expectations.
 
 

One question quiz:

How do you feel about achieving personal goals?

  • If I set myself a goal I will accomplish it…UPHOLDER

  • It's easy to accomplish my personal goals when I think about who I'm doing it for…OBLIGER

  • It's hard to make myself make it happen even when I know exactly what I want to do…REBEL

  • I'll definitely get it done as long as I’ve decided there's a good reason for doing it…QUESTIONER

 

What to do with your tendency:

  • UPHOLDER…Make a checklist and run with it

  • OBLIGER…Build in accountability (get a coach, a co-working group, have a friend check in that you’ve done the thing); focus on how this thing you want to do helps your people

  • QUESTIONER…Give yourself the space to ask the questions/do your research, you can trust yourself that it’s time to take action because you’re built to/have checked everything first

  • REBEL…You probably work with better with either fun or consequences built in: set yourself a reward or treat for doing the thing or set up a challenge (“bet ya can’t!”) or consequences for not doing the thing